Today’s Stat Of The Day looks at market tops by month. We have posted this study a few times, in which we defined tops as making a 52-week high during the month and failing to surpass it for the subsequent 12 months. Today, we added a shorter-term “top” duration of 3 months, i.e., the 52-week high was not surpassed for 3 months. The results for May were interesting.

As the charts show, with just 1 occurrence (1946), May has been among the least “toppy” months. Shorter-term is a different story, however. May has produced the most 3-month tops (10) of any month historically. This fits with the “Sell In May” phenomenon which we touched on in yesterday’s ChOTD.

*May Day Note: With the Dow forming a new intraday high today, we thought we would point out that it also formed at least 3-month tops on May 1, 2012 & May 2, 2011 (the 1st was a Sunday). Also, special mention to April 26, 2010, within 5 days of May 1.